GPS big data: making cities safer for cyclists

A website which tracks cyclists and runners with GPS for training and bragging
rights has launched a new service to sell anonymised chunks of data to city
planners, including in London, to help them make streets safer

Are hackers responsible for the sudden surge in data use?Photo: Strava

Urban planners in cities around the world, including London, are buying data from the cycle-logging website Strava to gain insight into where and when people ride and help to design better, safer infrastructure.

Strava uses GPS bike computers or smartphones to log where and how fast people ride, then compiles league tables for thousands of “segments” - sections of road anything from a few hundred metres to tens of miles long.

There are dozens on my commute to work, including the short stretch over Chelsea Bridge. Any Strava user who has ever ridden over it will have their best times logged in that segment’s league table and the fastest gets the “King of the Mountain” honorific.

Until now this data has been used soley for training purposes or to brag amongst friends and colleagues, but the website is now hoping that it can use the surging popularity of “Big Data” to license anonymised chunks of data to city planners looking to create safer infrastructure for cyclists.

Its new Strava Metro data service provides “ground truth” on where people ride and run, it claims.

Related Articles

“Millions of GPS-tracked activities are uploaded to Strava every week from around the globe. In denser metro areas, nearly one-half of these are commutes. These activities create billions of data points that, when aggregated, enable deep analysis and understanding of real-world cycling and pedestrian route preferences,” claims the Strava website.

The company is charging varying amounts for data dependent on how many of its users are active in the relevant area, and said that all personal information that could identify users is stripped out.

The first government to sign a deal with Strava, according to the Wall Street Journal, is Oregon’s department of transportation, which has licensed a year of data on cyclists in the city of Portland for $20,000.

A policy analyst working for that body, Margi Bradway, said: “We’re dipping our toe into the idea of big data with this project. According to that newspaper Strava also signed up customers in London, Glasgow and Australia.

Previously Strava had gained almost all of its revenue from its freemium model that allowed anyone to use the service free of charge, but offered extra features to subscribers. It also sells branded merchandise through an online shop.

Licensing data on users could be a lucrative new revenue stream for the San Francisco-based start-up that launched in 2009, as long as it can avoid any potential backlash over privacy concerns.

Co-founder Michael Horvath told the Wall Street Journal: “There are potentially thousands of customers in the US and the demand worldwide for Strava Metro is pretty substantial.”